Messrs. Nicolay and Hay say that Lincoln was the “indisputable
choice of the American people,” and by way of
sustaining the statement say that, if the “whole
voting strength of the three opposing parties had been
united upon a single candidate, Lincoln would nevertheless
have been chosen with only a trifling diminution of
his electoral majority."[111] It might be better to
say that Lincoln was the “indisputable choice”
of the electoral college. The “American
people” fell enormously short of showing a majority
in his favor. His career as president was made
infinitely more difficult as well as greatly more creditable
to him by reason of the very fact that he was not
the choice of the American people, but of less than
half of them,—­and this, too, even if the
Confederate States be excluded from the computation.[112]

The election of Lincoln was “hailed with delight”
by the extremists in South Carolina; for it signified
secession, and the underlying and real desire of these
people was secession, and not either compromise or
postponement.[113]